Mystery location of the Climate Camp
Updated on 26 August 2009
By Tom Clarke
Organisers of the annual Camp for Climate Action are taking the secrecy of the London location for this summer's protest very seriously, as Tom Clarke finds out.
Police plan for Climate camp (credit:Getty Images)
"Can you give us ANY idea where climate camp is going to be?" I ask my contact for this year's anti-emissions protest. "Anywhere inside the M25, but it will be on open ground" they tell me. Well that helps.
That's an area of about 607 square miles and it's no concrete jungle. The City of London alone owns and manages 10,000 acres of "open spaces" in London. I'm not sure how many potential campsites that could be, but it's a lot.
The reason for such secrecy? Well climate camp's organisers say it is in response to agressive treatment meted out by various police forces toward protesters at last year's climate camp. Police tactics (stopping and searching all attendees, confiscating basic necessities, and waking protesters up in the early hours) they argue, soon led to some very unhappy campers and ultimately a near-riot.
But of course, another reason for the secrecy is that if they made the location of the London camp known in advance it wouldn't be too hard for the police to stop them getting so much as a tent peg in the ground.
And the organisers of climate camp are taking the secrecy very seriously. They are reluctant to discuss details with me over the telephone. Our conversation takes place face-to-face in a cafe across the road from our offices.
They may perhaps have reason to be concerned. Police swooped and arrested 114 protesters assembled at a school near Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire in April this year. The suspicion was they were about to mount an assault on the coal fired installation. None is yet to be charged with an offence.
This year's camp is allegedly about training. Budding climate activists are being encouraged to join workshops in direct action. How to erect and ocupy a scaffolding "tripod" to gain and hold ground. How to safely "lock on" to an imovable object to prevent being moved on my police.
All I am told is that campers - who have been told to pack for spending the entire bank holiday weekend outdoors - are assembling at six locations across London: Waterloo Bridge, St James' Square, the Bank of England, Stratford, Moorgate and Stockwell tube station.
Once assembled at these "swoop points" sometime after noon tomorrow they will receive a text from organisers telling them where to head for. There's no clue in the location of the swoop points - other than perhaps that the camp isn't in North or West London.
Will the police try to halt this year's annual summer climate protest under canvas? Do they have the resources to follow six groups of protesters across London and prevent them converging in a staggered fasion on location quite possibly unknown to them? As well as worry about public order at the site on the same weekend as the Notting Hill Carnival absorbs much of their time? All will reveal itself tomorrow and we want to follow any action as it happens.
So rather than look out for a patch of open land in Greater London big enough to hold several hundred campers, their tents, toilets, kitchens and training workshops we decided to take climate camp up on their offer of following one of their members to the site once it's made public. We'll let you know the mysterious location of the camp as soon as we do.
While we can't predict its location, we can predict the weather. It seems the first direct action for the campers who make it is going to be putting a tent up in the driving rain - the forecast is terrible.
What we know about Climate camp
- This year protestors plan to "swoop" on an unknown location within the M25, with protestors gathering in six locations across the capital to await further instructions.
- In previous years, the camp has set up near the Kingsnorth power station in Kent and at Heathrow Airport. But unlike previous years there will not be a day of mass action as the event is intended as a training camp for another protest in October.
- Scotland Yard has held a series of talks with environmental activists ahead of the camp as part of an overhaul of tactics in response to wide-ranging criticism of their handling of the G20 demonstrations in the City. But the Met police have criticised organisers for not revealing the location of the camp, which means residents cannot be warned about any disruption.
- Climate Camp protestors have been told to divide up into six meeting groups, some on foot, some on bicycles, each identified by a different colour. They will then be directed to the camp by a series of text messages. Participants have been told to buy a zones one to six travelcard.
- Organisers plan to create a summer festival atmosphere with wind turbines, vegetarian canteens, organic toilets and a radio studio powered by solar panels. As in previous years, the camp will be cordoned off and split into "neighbourhoods" with gates manned by volunteers who control access.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/mystery%20location%20of%20the%2...
